Free Republic

Dear Steve, I had two citi-student loans and at some point in time within the last 5 years they went to Navient (Sallie Mae) I recently called to ask if I could get a lower pay-off amount as the original loans were 32K and now they are up to about 64K because of deferment and interest. They said no and I believe these may have been private loans. My conditions have changed. I was born into Islam, but never knew much about my religion. Since 2012 I have been learning more about my faith and it is strictly forbidden in...

The source of almost all spiritual problems is an inappropriate effort to avoid the cross. When we, as the church, turn away from the cross, we miss the path that God gave us—the path to freedom, joy, faithfulness and forgiveness. It’s the only way there. We think the cross is fine and necessary for those who aren’t saved…but, once we’re saved, it’s no longer relevant to our lives. We, as Christians, forget that the cross is the very paradigm for who we are and everything we do, think, feel and believe. So if that’s true (and it is), then what...

I want to introduce you to someone so evil that most Christians can’t even comprehend that evil. I want to introduce you to a being who is as evil as God is good; as selfish as God is unselfish; and as hateful as God is loving. His name is Satan and he is out to get you. Let’s check out Ephesians 6:10-12. The Reality & Personality of Evil It is immediately apparent that the Apostle Paul believes in the reality and personality of evil. Someone has said that one of the finest acts of strategy that Satan performs is to...

ATLANTA (AP) — The ministry of a prominent Georgia megachurch pastor and evangelist who teaches that God wants to bless the faithful with earthly riches is seeking donations to buy a luxury jet valued at more than $65 million.

Do you feel guilty? What about ashamed and down? I’ve got some good news from Romans 8:31-39 for you. It’s all good news…and only good news. God is in control. The good news of God’s government. “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). God is the sovereign Ruler of the universe and I work for him. That’s why you don’t hear me whining. That’s why I don’t beg for Jesus. That’s why I don’t manipulate or put guilt trips on people. I just do what he told...

When second grader Richard “Trip” Klibert, 7, was unhappy with his LaPlace, La., school’s decision to nix the popular “Taco Tuesday” lunch menu, he did what any other go-getting kid would do — he went straight to the top.

Maybe it’s cancer. Maybe it’s divorce. Maybe you have a son or daughter who’s turned away from God. Maybe you have a friend who betrayed you. Maybe you’re close to bankruptcy. Whatever it is, Mark 14:32-42 shows Jesus in a more painful predicament. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Christ faces a soon and horrible death on the cross. Even his friends—Peter, James and John—refuse to stand by him. They can’t even stay awake as Christ pleads with his Father to “take this cup from me.” As Christians, our model is Jesus Christ. In fact, there is probably no better way...

Are you in good shape? Able to carry a big, heavy box over slippery rocks and slushy snow? Happy not to shower for up to a month, live in close proximity to three people and 2,000 smelly penguins for five months with no power, heat or hot water and limited communications on a small island off the coast of Antarctica? If so, we have the job for you!

The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is one of great joy and great freedom. If Jesus radically changed things (and he did), why is it so hard to see a change? We can be dying inside. We can feel so guilty. We can sin so badly that we feel dirty all the time. We can be holding on “by our fingernails.” We can be bleeding from the wounds of life and from the wounds of other people. Yet when someone asks how we’re doing, what do we say? “Fine.” … We can all identify with the Prodigal Son...

Later this year along the banks of the James River outside Richmond, Virginia, a paper products maker based in northeastern China will begin construction on a new U.S. manufacturing plant. The factory will churn the region's straw and corn stalks into household products including napkins, tissue and organic fertilizer—all marked "Made in the USA." Shandong Tranlin Paper's new U.S. factory is forecast to generate about 2,000 new jobs by 2020, and is the latest Chinese company to invest in American manufacturing. Chinese foreign direct investment in the U.S. totaled $12 billion last year, topping $10 billion for the second year...

I had lunch with a young man yesterday. He is a math and science teacher, and a very intense and focused Christian. He came to lunch with an agenda. First, he wanted to confess to being very angry with me when he first started reading my books and hearing me preach. This young man said, laughing, that I would be shocked by some of the things he wrote in the margins of my books. Second, now that he was no longer angry, he wanted to ask some clarifying biblical and theological questions. I’m often asked, “Okay, I get this grace...

Sound familiar? All clichés. They may sound nice, but clichés are often just like Band-Aids on cancer…useless. ... What do you do about your past? Let’s check out lessons from the Apostle Paul in Acts 9:21-31. To say that Paul had a bad past is a gross understatement. As Saul, Paul lived the worst kind of sinful life you could imagine—persecuting, killing and binding up the saints of God. In fact, at this point in Acts, Paul had just participated in the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church. What did Paul do about his past? What...

Something is missing in the family of Christ. It isn’t that we aren’t doing things right, that we aren’t trying, that we don’t care. It isn’t that we have ignored God’s commandments or been unfaithful to Christ; it isn’t that we have become apostate. ... God’s people—with, of course, some significant and noteworthy exceptions—are doing what they ought to do. But something is still missing. Nobody talks about it, but we all know it. Most of us have an “emperor-has-no-clothes” agreement with one another not to have seminars on the subject or to bring it up in committee meetings. But,...

After a year of several fleet-wide groundings for the F-35, the latest problem to plague the fifth-generation fighter is forcing the U.S. Air Force to revamp an entirely separate fleet to support the military’s most expensive plane yet. The F-35 can only fly on jet fuel under a certain temperature due to a range of heating issues attributed to the F-35B variant’s short takeoff and vertical landing engine. According to the USAF, the dark-green trucks that carry that fuel absorb too much heat from the sun to keep the planes in the sky.

Combining a tire and wheel into a single airless 'tweel' has proven to be a popular concept, although it still hasn't gone mainstream. Michelin is the latest company to announce a production tweel, but not for any automotive applications—just yet. It will open a dedicated tweel-producing factory in Piedmont, South Carolina, this week. However these airless tires will be used on skid-steer loaders and certain models of John Deere lawnmower, not cars.

If you are a free and bold Christian, you will face all kinds of pressure. You will be criticized. You will be looked down on as less of a Christian. You will find yourself thinking of the days when you didn’t make waves, when you were a phony, when you were dishonest…and when you were liked by everyone… We can “slip back into the darkness” quite easily. And it’s serious business: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:8)....

The pilot who survived the SpaceShipTwo crash says that his parachute deployed automatically after he was extracted from the vehicle while it broke up. Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began interviewing the pilot, Peter Siebold, on Friday, following the ship's crash late last month. He was discharged from the hospital last Monday after being treated for injuries to his shoulder. The NTSB says that Siebold's accounts are consistent with what it's learned from other sources of data, such as video, in its ongoing investigation.

If you are a free and bold Christian, you will face all kinds of pressure. You will be criticized. You will be looked down on as less of a Christian. You will find yourself thinking of the days when you didn’t make waves, when you were a phony, when you were dishonest…and when you were liked by everyone. And, as a result, there will be times when you will want to go back to the very prisons you escaped from, the prisons—of failure, perfectionism, religion, the past and the like—that deprived you of your freedom in Christ. Paul’s surprise at...

The conclusion is: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). By the way, that means exactly what it says, no ifs, ands or buts. If you are a Christian, there is no condemnation…and you are truly free. So what are Paul’s premises leading up to that conclusion? (…)There are two walks. One is a walk of the Spirit and the other a walk of the flesh. … What is the walk of the flesh? It is living under the burden of work, work and work and, then, if you work hard enough,...

Eating. Humans have done it since, well, the beginning of history. And pretty much ever since the first caveman realized he was too tired to grill a wooly mammoth after a long day of hunting, other cavemen were willing to do it for him. For a price, of course. While the US doesn’t quite date back to the caveman, it’s still got plenty of old restaurants. And, much like we tracked down the oldest bar in every state, we’ve once again culled restaurant associations, historical societies, tourism boards, and business licensing departments nationwide in search of the oldest continuously operating...